


i feel safe in the 5am light

by exceed



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Relationship, Stolen Century, give me my lesbian girls, how to tag? i have no idea, lucreita: the only one able to join her, lup: too many harebrained ideas in the middle of the night, save these two hopeless gals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 08:17:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12790485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exceed/pseuds/exceed
Summary: “Are you with me or not, Lucreita? The Light waits for nobody.”“As if you’re going to let me give you no for an answer. Let me go get my things.”“Nice. I’ll see you on the deck in ten, hun!”What a mistake that had been.Lup rushes in. Lucreita really wishes they had backup. Desert bandits exactly aren't the kindest people they've met on their cycles so far.





	i feel safe in the 5am light

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, how are you doing? Hope you're doing good. This isn't my first fic ever, but certainly the first I'm sort of proud of and my first TAZ fic! All of my other fics have been orphaned so don't you dare try and search my bad ones...
> 
> I need more fics of my lesbian gals or I will die, honestly. I live for lupcreita, although I certainly love every other ship in the TAZ fandom <3 Every amazing fic I've seen here has influenced me to make one of my own!
> 
> The title is a lyric from Technicolour Beat by Oh Wonder.
> 
> ENTER THE GOOD GALS

“This was such a terrible idea.”

“By terrible, do you mean terribly _exciting_?”

“ _No!_ Not at all! We’re going to die and we have seven months left in this cycle!”

“Hun, don’t be so overdramatic. I’ve got this, even if you don’t!”

“You-” A soft, exasperated huff broke the quiet as the two figures carefully traversed the rafters of a hidden base, careful to not alert the people moving below.

Lucreita really, really wasn’t one for adventuring. She was much better back at the Starblaster, back at what had been their home for eleven cycles, writing events down where she was safe and there was no chance for anyone to hurt them and-

An arm pulled her back from where she had nearly stumbled, and her wide eyes darted over to meet the eyes of her partner in crime- a wildly grinning elf that winked at her level of shock.

Gods, if only Lup had pulled her twin along instead of her. They’d’ve already been gone by now with the Light, the whole reason why they were there in the first place.

Her mind flickered back to just a few hours before-

_“Hey, Lucreita, wanna go on an adventure with me? I’ve figured out where they’re hiding the Light!”_

_“I really don’t think this is the best idea-”_

_“Cmon, don’t be such a buzzkill. Lu. Up you go, up and away from your journals, that’s a girl.”_

_A sigh. “Lup-”_

_“Taako’s out with Barry for some science shit Bluejeans wants done, Merle and Davenport aren’t the best at quick stealth, and would you think Magnus would do anything but rush in?”_

_“...Fair point.”_

_“Are you with me or not, Lucreita? The Light waits for nobody.”_

_“As if you’re going to let me give you no for an answer. Let me go get my things.”_

_“Nice. I’ll see you on the deck in ten, hun!”_

What a mistake that had been.

This desert world that they were on seemed to be always in the middle of a sandstorm, sand was _everywhere_ in her clothes, she could barely see, and the desert bandits that had stolen away with the Light were the most infuriating foes they had faced so far.

They poisoned half of the weapons they used, made traps at every turn, had some kind of foreign magic that spirited them away without a trace, and Lup had decided to only bring herself and Lucreita along to steal it.

Which brought her back to her point that this had been the worst idea ever-

“Look, I get it.” She was snapped back to reality by her teammate's voice, eyes staring straight into Lup’s from a few inches away.

Too close, too close, her mind whispered, and she pulled away with a blink as the elf continued her words, her eyes a force of nature that she couldn’t meet for any longer than a few seconds.

“You’re not used to getting out of the ship often, yeah? Just. Just follow my lead and it’ll be fine. We’ll ride out here on a wave of flames and it’ll be bitchin’.”

 _“Perfectly_ stealthy,” she muttered, but she dutifully waited for Lup to pass her before they kept going. Quiet seconds passed until Lucreita blinked, looked up from where she was carefully picking her way across sandy beams, and whispered just loudly enough to carry to her- _friend? Comrade?_ Something like that.

“...Did you tell the captain about this death mission we’re on before we left?”

The silence was all she needed to deduce the answer. She groaned.

_We’re dead._

Of _course_ nobody else on their team knew where they were and what they were doing. She would have marked Magnus as their most reckless figure, but...sometimes his audacity couldn’t compare to Lup’s. Harebrained schemes, plans that could get them killed picked up after a second of deliberation, if any…

Talking stopped soon after that when a patrol went by. Their whole base was in a cliff and underground, which made whispering when someone was around terribly risky. Her heart thudding in her chest, Lucreita made next to no sound as they creeped above their heads.

Everyone here had so many weapons, it was sickening. What did she have? A magic wand and a dagger, which was just perfect.

Eventually, some painstakingly long time later _(days, her heart thought, even though it had only been an hour)_ Lup stopped again and motioned for Lucreita to join her, her smile infectious- and Lucreita beamed, too, when she saw what was right ahead.

The Light of Creation.

“You take the Light, I’ll cover our mad dash out,” Lup whispered softly into her ear. “Let’s light them the fuck up.”

Unsurprisingly, everything went to hell the instant they jumped down into the room full of desert bandits.

Nearly tripping on her way down, she picked up the Light and frantically tried to cast a few shielding spells as fire erupted around them, carefully sculpted as to not hit her.

 _Such power, such finesse,_ her mind murmured thoughtfully, but she had to get going. They needed to get back to the Starblaster.

Flames danced around the pair as they dashed their way out of the hidden base, weapons thrown into the midst and barely missing them on multiple occasions. Some nicked her, some of their mages got in hits on the two of them but they had to keep going, had to keep running out.

Lup barked spells as they dashed even as Lucreita pulled up her courage to cast a few protection spells, turning to look behind them before she was dragged along helplessly by Lup.

“How many of them are on our tail, we’re doomed-”

“We’re getting out of here, hun!” Her cackling was only broken by each spell she needed, caught up in the moment, and soon enough Lucreita found herself laughing as they made it, they had been hurt but they had made it-

“Nope, _no-o-o._ Can’t rest yet,” Lup chided, one hand tight on her arm as they kept booking it, arrows, darts, and daggers flying at them in the middle of the sandstorm. “Bad guys. Traps.”

“We should have brought someone,” she grumbled, but they kept going anyways.

It seemed like hours passed as they were pursued by the desert people. They couldn’t see too far ahead of them, sand was digging into every cut she had gained, and this was the most miserable Lucreita had felt in ages.

 _“Fuck,”_ she hissed out when Lup pulled her down into a crevice formed by a rock. “You want to hide here? No space, no-”

_“Shh.”_

Silence, besides the bandits yelling in a language other than their own and the wind whipping up sand into their faces.

It was a long time until the yelling stopped, and Lucreita could barely keep holding the Light as well as standing on her two feet.

She dropped like a stone.

“Lu? Lucreita?” Lup’s worried voice rang out as she opened her eyes again, groaning. “You okay?”

The face close to hers was concerned, it seemed, but- everything was blurry.

“Glasses,” she murmured, and with a frown she waited for them to be placed into her hands.

“Uh, Lu?”

“Yes?”

“I think they fell off earlier. Sorry.”

“...Well. Damn.”

“Are you alright? You didn’t answer my question, hun.”

There was a slight numbness in her back. She ignored it. “Just some cuts, I think,” she murmured, taking a moment to take into account all of the wounds she felt. “...Maybe some got me more than I thought.”

The contact she had been feeling for an hour, Lup pressed up against her, slowly lessened as the elf stepped back to look at her.

“You have a shitton of wounds, holy _fuck._ We need Merle now, and not a second later.”

“How...How far are we from the Starblaster?”

“To be honest, hun? No idea.”

She wanted Lup closer to her. It grounded her, it made her feel safe unlike the sudden sensation of _floating in the air, what the hell._

“I’ll be Levitating you back. You look like you couldn’t take another step. Walking is out of the question. Stay awake, would you? Those fuckers got you good.”

The floating felt relaxing. She could sleep…

No. Lup had told her to stay awake. Why? She was fine- wait, that was also wrong, she was hurt but the pleasant numbness was spreading across her back. Why was she numb?

“M’fine,” she mumbled, the Light close in her arms as Lup pulled her along by one of the many pieces of clothing she had on to block the sand, although that wasn’t doing either of them any good. “Lemme go.”

“You were having trouble standing, Miss _I’m-Fine-and-Strong._ ” Her voice was dry, but Lucreita couldn’t help but find it-

No, no, no, that was worse than thinking she could sleep. Thoughts like that would rattle around in her head for cycles if she didn’t cut it off immediately.

Seconds, minutes, hours passed. The time was impossible to truly tell thanks to the damned sand, but each breath kept time, each bit of blood soaking through clothes, each bit of numbness multiplying and spreading through her back.

Faintly, she wondered if that should really be happening. Was she dying?

This would be the first time she died. Magnus had already gone twice, Merle once, Barry once- but the rest of them hadn’t gone, which was impressive for how many close calls they had been in.

Maybe this was her time to go. How many months did they have left, again?

Her tired mind saved her once again, unwittingly, with words pouring out of her mouth unbidden.

“Back’s all numb,” she mumbled, almost too quiet to hear, and the grumbling coming from Lup’s end abruptly shut off.

“Say that again, hun?”

“Back. Numb.” The tired haze that she had been in was slowly lifting, making way for some kind of quiet panic deep inside her bones, creeping through her body just as the feeling in her back was leeched away. “Spreading.”

“Fuck, _fuck,_ we can’t lose you this early into the cycle, fuck, gods no,” Lup muttered to herself, breaking into a sprint even though the comforting hum of the Starblaster was nowhere close. “Gotta get there, that’s definitely some high level poison they got you with, hun. Merle has to be awake. He has to be.”

The faintest of laughs bubbled out of Lucreita, cracking and freezing and totally unlike her usual soft chuckle. “I’m fine. If I die, I’ll come back.”

“We’re _not_ going to lose you, Lu.”

“Why does it...Why does it matter?”

“Because we care about you, dumbass, even though it’s clear that you don’t think so too.”

As their speed picked up, as she held the Light close even now, Lucreita distantly thought about the words that had spilled out of Lup’s mouth.

_They cared?_

The closest thing to pure quiet settled as Lup rushed along and Lucreita thought, thought faintly, thought for the longest time she could, tired and exhausted and numb.

She was only meant to write down what happened, write down the events and log them to the utmost detail. Adventuring hadn’t been included in this, with her thin frame and too-large glasses and hands meant for writing, not fighting, although she could cast a mean barrier.

Socializing didn’t enter into the mix, not in her mind.

Lucreita had stayed far away, stayed in her room and wrote or kept herself as professional as she could, polite and distanced and somewhat kind. It had been their fault that emotions came in, her alarmed state when Magnus challenged the Power Bear, her snarkiness when Lup had dragged her along on this harebrained scheme.

How had she gotten so close to them?

Memories flooded her now as sand whipped up against her, as the faint humming of the Starblaster entered her hearing. Lup was frantically sprinting, almost praying under her breath to gods she didn’t believe in, fear in every word she whispered.

Waking up with visions of the Hunger in her nightmares, getting up to make hot cocoa, Taako coming in and chiding her for the packets that she had been pouring into her water, making her some with practiced hands and a steady rhythm.

Magnus venting to her about pets, about animals and how he wanted them so, so badly, curled up on the couch together and murmuring about their families- the fighter’s heat soaking into Lucreita and warming her up on the coldest of nights when they both needed someone to talk to.

Davenport’s rough praise, his rare smiles, working in silence on the deck on a good day when the sun of whatever world they were on was out. Quiet moments between the noise everyone else brought, most days.

Lup.

Oh, Lup.

As she was rushed into the Starblaster she could only think of the past, not the present- she was too numb, too tired, and if she wasn’t remembering times then she would fall asleep and that could be bad. Lup had ordered her to stay awake.

Lup was radiant.

An embrace on a day when all of them needed it, a practiced pair of hands when she needed help with her own hair, the suns over their home world and the beating in her heart.

 _Ah._ She had let herself think of it.

The quiet talks they had, painting the other’s nails, lying on the deck and staring at the stars. Friendly. Close, but not too close. She had tried her best to be professional until Lup had burst into her room on the first cycle, bemoaning the fact that they were the only two ladies and instantly bursting off into some topic she couldn’t remember.

She had been too busy staring at her hands as they moved around, at Lup’s long blonde hair, at her infectious smile.

_“Merle, Merle, where the fuck is Merle, Magnus?”_

_“Uh- I’ll go get him, shit, you two look bad. Do you have the Light?”_

_“You betcha, but-”_

_“Oh. Lucreita has it- shit, don’t hit me! I’ll get Merle!”_

Times in the bathroom they shared getting ready for the day when they were both on the Starblaster, one of two bathrooms they had- one for the two of them, one for the men. It had made them both laugh multiple times over the years when they refused access, even to Taako, who fumed.

Quiet moments, spaced throughout time, where Lup looked over the journals while Lucreita wrote more, candlelight illuminating the room instead of the light fixtures already installed.

_“Damn, what happened to the kid?”_

_“Poison. Wounds. She said her back was numb, I’m not sure if it’s spread beyond that.”_

_“Alright...C’mon, Pan, we really need ya right now. Can’t let our youngest crewmate die.”_

Her smile. The way her hands moved when she spoke. Her warm eyes, crinkling with every bit of joy she had.

Elves took a long time to start loving. She was already too deep.

“She’s in...pretty bad shape. Won’t be able to move freely for a while. From what I sense, that poison is hell during recovery. No big movements for her for the next few months.”

_“...At least she’s still alive.”_

_“That she is, Lup.”_

_“...Could you tell Magnus and Cap’n’port about it? And Barry and Taako when they get back?”_

_“Sure, kid.”_

_“Not a kid.”_

_“Whatever.”_

 

* * *

 

Silence. Where was she?

 _Oh,_ her eyes had been closed. She was on her stomach on some bed or couch- as her eyes slowly opened, it adjusted to the dim lighting of what was her room. A figure cloaked in red was hunched over, meditating in the silence.

She tilted her head further to see her, but didn’t move much beyond that. “...Lup?”

The figure jerked to full consciousness and blonde hair sprung up along with those long ears she was familiar with, a wide grin curling along bright pink lips.

“Lucreita! You’re finally awake!”

Fingers combed through her loose hair, making the scribe hum softly, exhausted even after waking up. Her back ached, she could feel where cuts littered her body, but all she could really focus on was the blissful feeling of the hands in her hair, running along her head.

“What happened?” Her voice was raspy, she noted, somewhat surprised. How long had she been out? “I only remember getting the Light and running and being hurt.”

“One of those fuckers hit you with poison in your back,” the elven woman murmured softly, smiling at her until all she could do was tiredly grin back. Lup had that effect on others. “You won’t be able to move much without hurting, I’m afraid. At least from what Merle says.”

“...Can I write?”

“Nah. Nope.” The hands moved to her own as they seemed to tremble, searching for pens that weren’t within reach. “Not until you recover more. You've been sleeping for nearly a while week, and it'll be a while more 'til you can do much.”

A week. _She had to get writing, had to get recording-_

“It’s my job until you recover. Cap’n’port’s grounded me, which is bullshit, but whatever. Just tell me what you want written down and I’ll do it, even though I don’t have killer writing skills.”

A short chuckle appeared, silencing them both for a moment until Lucreita spoke again, quiet and contemplative.

“That means he’s made me your responsibility, then?”

“Mhm. Gotta stay with you and cater to your every whim. You ever want a butler, Lu?”

“...Couldn’t say I ever have.”

“Too bad! You got me now, the one and only Lup, fire witch extraordinaire, excellent cook, and _great_ gossip buddy.”

With no reaction, silence fell on them both. Hands resumed their combing and Lucreita relaxed more, eyes closed until she twisted her back just an inch and _she was on fire, it burned, she was going to die-_

Distantly, she heard screaming. It took her a while to realize that it was coming from her.

Just a bit later, when she opened her eyes, she finally registered Lup’s fantic murmuring, asking what was wrong, desperate to help. Why was she so...so _avid_ about her well-being?

The pain was too strong to focus on Lup for now. Her screams were dying but she started noticing the tears, the pain too sharp to focus on anything but her back.

She was in hell.

Eventually Merle rushed in and cast something that let the pain dim down to a dim roar, where she could process something beyond herself, crying like a little child that had just had their first nightmare.

Lup was wiping her tears away and whispering stories, so many stories as Merle left again.

 _“Hurts,”_ she whispered, voice barely audible after the screaming and sobbing. Her throat felt like she had been yelling for days.

“I know, Lu,” her friend- her friend, maybe more if she ever wanted to hope- murmured, looking so sad as Lucreita watched her, a pair of not-quite-right glasses on her face. Everything was still slightly blurry. “I’m so sorry. I should have brought Merle, or help, or-”

“Not your fault.”

As her body shook, as the tears slowly dried up, the feeling of fingers in her hair resumed in the quiet moment, the humming song of the Starblaster lulling her to sleep. Her hand gripped one of Lup’s tightly- a question, a feeling, something she couldn’t quite explain.

“...I’ll be here when you wake up, Lucreita. Don’t worry.”

Even hurt, there was nowhere else she wanted to be.

“Sleep.”

The only sound for hours in the room were their soft breaths and the Starblaster’s unending rumble- the one constant while beyond the sandstorm, a moonless night settled in to stay.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comments, compliments, and kudos make my day if you want to be extra kind. Should I make more fics in this verse / slight au? I have a few ideas already.
> 
> Follow me on twitter at @inknbone if you want- I do some art there, although not humans- or find me on the TAZ Discord server I frequent!


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